Val and Darren left the White Wand, looking around, and saw the man disappearing off down the right side of the street. He was slowly gathering a tail of bystanders curious to see what hurried him so, and they realised that should they wish to get a good idea of what was going on they'd have to hurry after him before a crowd gathered.

And Val, still trying to get his hat just perfect, did so, begining down the street. Of all the skills taught to him in his days as a Knight, tracking wasn't his favorite by any means, but it sure did come in handy from time to time. Trying to keep back far enough to not be seen, he looked back to see what Darren would do.

Darren thought that the skills that were taught to dragoons weren't useful in any situation except surprising someone. He was to be proven wrong. Or was he?

In other words, deciding that the crowd will, at one point, make him lose the trail, or else he will go somewhere no-one can follow, he attempted to follow from the roofs, Dragoon training helping him gain the height needed.

Val and Waikiki followed the flow of the crowds, overtaking as many people as they could; Iluen in turn trailed them.

Darren, from his vantage on the rooftops, soon caught sight of the man in the green cloak again and was able to easily follow him to his destination, an alleyway opposite a Nekonian restaurant, The Neko's Smile, that had been cordoned off. Other men and woman stood in the alley discussing something, or going about some kind of work. A thought then occured to Darren about who this man might be: A Crown Investigator. Called in whenever the regular guard were stumped, CIs were specialists. And these killings weren't exactly normal...

"He isâ€” investigat'r? Perhaps?" Waikiki asked, tail swishing behind her in a blue-green blur as she used it to indicate to an overly close pedestrian that she didn't appreciate her tail being crushed.

A killing in daylight? You'd assume that there wouldn't be any, since it'd be more difficult, presumably...

Waikiki was beginning to wonder about possibly moving to another city for her dye shop.

"No, not really. Just trying to get a bit more information on what's been going on...Speaking of which..."

Val turned back the way he had been walking, and tried to sneak a bit closer, close enough to overhear something. Pulling his hat down over his face a bit, he cursed himself for having to mess it up just after he had gotten it just how he wanted it.

Kelne let out a heartfelt sigh. Apparently there was no escape from this sort of thing. Well, if there was no escape, he might as well find out as much about it as he could. No sense in being surprised at a later date.

Kelne stalked over towards the alley, found himself a position in the front ranks of the onlookers, folded his arms and waited. His expression implied that he wouldn't be moving without some kind of answers.

Darren decided, it would be hard to try to watch from the crowd. As more time passed, more'd gather. Besides, he doubted that ANYONE was actually gathering much at that point. So, on the rooftops he remained.

Yet, the rooftops was easy to see unless he was careful. Calculating that he jumped onto the side where he wouldn't cast any shadows once he got into the alley, he jumped, or attempted to, the roof a bit from the alley, then towards it.

Val looked at Kelne and grinned a bit. Taking up a similar position, he put one hand in his pocket, and used the other to adjust his hat again, trying to get it perfect again. Then, looking to the closest investigator, he gave a bit of a look, and began talking.

"We really would like to know what's happening, you know." He paused for a minute, as if recollecting his thoughts. "You can tell us, I'm sure. It is, after all, our right to know if we're in danger."

In response to Val's question, the man simply repeated a close approximation of the speech he had heard before - "Yes, there is danger; yes, we are doing all we can; yes, take any precautions you can; no, we are not obligated to tell you any more."

'Look', he added loudly, 'Could you at least stay back while we finish our business here so as not to trample any evidence?'

"What sort of precautions, exactly?" Kelne asked simply. Precautions came as naturally as breathing to him, and it was a great fool indeed who attempted a sneak attack on him. Nevertheless, information on which precautions to concentrate on was always welcome.

The man nodded his head, causing a strand of his spiky black hair to dislodge itself from his red headband and fall over his face. He took a second to repair the damage before responding.

'Fair enough. We still don't know who or what is behind these attacks. All we can suggest is that you keep alert and be inside before dark... In light of this new attack staying out in the day when you don't need to might be hazardous too, but you should probably be alright if you stick to more heavily populated areas like the main roads.'

'For crying ou -' He began, then checked himself. 'What part of "We still don't know who or what is behind these attacks" did you not understand? Why is the concept that we can't right now tell you any more so difficult to comprehend? If you people would stop disrupting our investigations, we might just be able to find something worth telling you.'

'Patience, David.' The man in the green cloak had stepped up behind him and was looking at Val.

'But Carim, I -'

'Shadow energy traces have been found on the remains. There are no teeth or blade marks on the bones. They have been cleansed of marrow. That's pretty much the sum of our discoveries so far. If you wish to find out more, I suggest you research the matter at the library rather than wasting your time here. If you find anything, do let us know.'

"See? Shadow energies. That's all you needed to say. Even THAT is more to go on than what you were telling us." He looked up to the man in green and nodded. "Thank you. If I do manage to find anything, I'll let you know."

"Depends on where you are, really...Where I come from, it's not too common, but I've heard in other places, it's all around. Not quite sure what it would be here, though...But I do know that the one thing that stays the same whereever it is, it's that it's not the most pleasant stuff in the world. If you see something and your first instincts tell you to be very afriad, there's a good chance that it's got shadow energy."

"Simplistic perhaps, but accurate," Kelne said, wandering over towards the conversation. "Still, I suspect we're dealing with something a tad more subtle here. Or at least fast. After all, if it's neither of these things, you'd expect people to run like hell and we'd have some actual witnesses."

Like it or not, he'd decided whatever the damned thing was presented a potential threat to him. As such, he was going to have to do something about it.

"Nothing beyond what's known to the general public, I'm afraid," Kelne said, frowning. "Given a list of victims, it may be possible to identify any links between them, assuming the attacks aren't random."

Iluen watched the proceedings with some interest. However, the gauntlet (which had been remarkably silent recently) suddenly shouted at him, "KILL THEM! SLAY THEM ALL! LET NONE ESCAPE!" and continued along these lines.

Iluen was understandably startled, but as he almost always has, ignored the gauntlet's advice. The fact that it had made this outburst, however, stated that there was definitely something strange going on. His interest increased at this point, though it was a little hard to follow the conversation over the gauntlet's mental shouting.

Since they were all foreigners, none of them probably had any idea where they were headed, but they soon came across a post at the next crossroads with various signs pointing to important locations within the capital.

The Tanascus Archives, should they indeed be seeking it, was to be found on Throne Street, in the centre of the city. That was probably about fifteen minutes walk from their current position, should any of them be up on Baron City's geography.

Waikiki looked up at the sign, eyes bright as her tail swished behind her.

Archives? It looks like a good place to start, at least... even if I need to harass someone to explain some of the language to me, she thought reflectively, the tuft of colored fur at the end of her tail twitching.

With that, she began down Throne Street, regardless of whether or not the others accompanied her.

His job seemingly fruitless, Darren took a step back. Where to go? IT was strange... His only hope of understanding anything may have been with the man who he met before, who he saw travelling with a group of strangers.

Jumping down, he neared the others, hoping to meet Val and ask him whether or not he understood anything of what was going on!

Having made being at least reasonably familiar with the city's layout his first order of business, Kelne had a good idea where the archives lay. Still, the sign brought that knowledge into focus for him.

He figured there were fair odds that the whatever-it-was hadn't appeared out of nothing. If there had been similar incidents in the past, then the archives would likely contain information on them. And knowledge, he knew well, was power.

The Tanascus Archives turned out to be an great sprawl of a building, a creation of great grey blocks and tall, thin windows, sternly designed by an architect who had understood the purpose of function over fancy. At least three wings extended from the building that could be seen from the front, and it rose a full three stories from the ground.

In front of the group was a pair of large, wooden doors, closed. However, the left door had a smaller door set within it, which was open and allowed access to the interior.

Waikiki blinked slightly, looking up at the doors and the smaller door. She reflected over the interesting design as well as the sheer size of the building before slipping through the open door, glancing about.

Should be SOMETHING useful, she thought, humming slightly under her breath.

Kelne likewise entered the archives. Given the size of the place, actually tracking down the relevant information could prove quite time-consuming. Then again, there was an improved likelihood that the information would actually be present.

Val stopped when he saw Waikiki and Kelne begin to walk away. Although he had no idea where they were going, he wanted to keep an eye on them- Expecially Waikiki, as she seemed to need a bit of extra help understanding what was going on. HOwever, the approaching Darren caught his eye, so he hung back to see what he wanted.

Iluen, still at the scene of the attack, watched the Crown Investigators finish their business in the alley, gathering up everything they required for further examination and pushing their way through the crowd.

The alley was now open for examination, as some of the erstwhile spectators were now doing, but in all likelyhood it had now been completely scoured of evidence by the investigators.

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Waikiki and Kelne found themselves within a great hall, a grand chamber which stretched upwards for the entire three stories of the Archives. In front of them across a marble floor was a staircase covered in red carpet and with highly polished, matured wooden banisters. It led up to a second floor balcony that ran around the hall. No stairs leading to the third floor were visible to them in their current position, so these were presumably above them.

In front and slightly to the left of the staircase stood a great oak desk, on which sat a large ledger and several piles of paperwork. Behind the desk sat a middle-aged, thin to the point of bony, and somewhat frumpy human woman - exactly the sort of person one would expect to see working in a library. She looked up from her work to watch the pair, peering over her half-moon spectacles.

[GM's Note: Hey, sometimes I can't resist stereotypes. I have no excuse!]